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Beckett postgame interview

Beckett postgame interview

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Is it fair to say that your four postseason starts have had a striking similar quality to them?

JOSH BECKETT: I don't know, some of them -- some pitches have been the same, some pitches aren't. I had enough pitches today to survive. That's a good lineup over there. You can tell how hungry they are. Like I said, I made pitches when I needed to execute them and I did. They held them off just long enough, great defense again. Swinging the bats like they have recently and a lot during the season. We were patient when we needed to be patient, and we got our big hits.

You've seen the at-bats that your guys have taken all year. As a pitcher, how tough is it to get guys out when you know they're not going to chase anything that's out of the zone?

JOSH BECKETT: It's extremely tough. Our guys I think, I think that's why we're still playing. There's a few other teams that I know of that do that that we played against a lot. They really work pitchers.

When you have a team plan like we have every night, it's kind of fun to watch. There's not a lot of teams, very few, that do what we do, and have that team approach. Every time they go up there they're trying to see five or six pitches, and they grind pitchers out. Not too many guys last. You hear people say that all the time around our clubhouse, is not many people last until the sixth inning against us. The really good ones do, and unfortunately some of those are the games that we end up losing.

You know, what we try to do is try to get to the middle guys in people's bullpens. Those are the guys that are not good enough really to be closers and not really starters. If we can get to those guys, that's where we usually score the runs.

How important was it to set the tone in the first game the way you did?

JOSH BECKETT: You're just trying to get outs. In the first inning, trying to get your guys back in there. They're anxious and ready to go, ready to swing the bats. So when you're at home, it's fortunate that you have to play the field first, but it's good to get them back in there, so you're stretching and stuff like that.

Have you seen anything like this offense that these guys put together the past few nights, and how does that make your job easier when you've got that kind of cushion to go out to the mound with?

JOSH BECKETT: I think it's just knowing these guys, you feel pretty good when you go out there. You feel like you're going to put up quite a few runs, and obviously you don't feel like that if you're facing a guy that won 17 games this year. We took the pitches we needed to take, and we hit the mistakes.

This is a World Series game, but is it any more difficult to get fired up when it's getting late in the game and the crowd is kind of not as in it and you have a 12-run lead?

JOSH BECKETT: I mean, you just try to stay the same, go out there and execute pitch by pitch and don't try and get ahead of yourself.

You faced the Rockies earlier this year. Did you study tapes from that over and over and over? Does it seem like what you did tonight was a whole lot different than what you did during the regular season?

JOSH BECKETT: I didn't look at it one time, no. I try not to harp on those negative things too much. Obviously that wasn't a start that I want to go back and replay in my mind. I think just kind of go with my strengths and execute those, and when you need to you exploit hitters' weaknesses.

There's a lot of people talking about how impressive you've been this entire postseason. Fans are talking about it, the media is talking about it. What do you think about what you've been doing?

JOSH BECKETT: I don't know. I hope my teammates are happy. That's who I'm really here to please. If they're happy, I'm happy. They go out there and bust their tail for me all the time, and I feel like I need to really do my part and help carry my load. If my teammates feel like that's what I'm doing, then I'm happy.

Courtesy of FastScripts by ASAP Sports. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.